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Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? Do they deserve no sympathy or humanity? Right now I

Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? Do they deserve no sympathy or humanity? Right now I make $13/hr in an expensive city. I'm working to find a software job, but the people I work with... they don't have anything else. They're just happy to hold down a steady job. How do you suggest these people magically gain the intelligence and/or self-control/self-discipline and free time and knowledge of a solid path to improve their situation? Because they sure as shit can't afford to go to nursing school, but do they even know what to type into google to start teaching themselves marketable skills? I feel bad for people like you who lack empathy to such a degree. Just literally disconnected from such a large portion of humanity.

nickthemagicman 8y ago
It seems to me that republicans are perfectly fine with others suffering, and misery as long as it doesn't affect them. Disguised Social Darwinism. The problem is most are unaware that their success is 99% luck of being born in certain circumstances.
- vailprogrammer 8y ago
  "Honey, those people are lazy, so they deserve to be poor!" Dear lord. Go work in some shitty jobs full of poor people, and count how many work hard versus how many are lazy. Those 1%ers would be shocked at what they saw. But of course, how could they ever see the help as humans deserving of a decent, not-always-financially-scared life?
  - mmirate3 8y ago
    People don't "deserve" things. They earn them. Go pile-drive that idea through your thick skull. (Doing so, just might fix whatever major malfunction you are so clearly suffering.)
mmirate3 8y ago
> Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? No. Luckily programming isn't the only task in the world that needs doing, and we have a lovely thing called "comparative advantage" that helps solve all the information problems that result from such grand diversity of relative-capabilities. I suggest you look it up. We even have people who are even smarter than programmers, or are at least smarter in different ways than programmers. Managers and scientists, for instance. > Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? It is either their own that they continue to be ignorant, or their parents' that they and their parents are stupid yet still they were conceived and born. > Do they deserve no sympathy? None whatsoever. They're - at best - just random people. Why should they? > or humanity? How can someone "deserve" humanity? It is an intrinsic physical attribute of a particular object - "X is a human being instead of e.g. a toaster-oven" - and since this is the real world, I do dare to presume that the only extant people who have jobs are indeed humans. In other words: thusfar, saying that a person "deserves humanity" is just as meaningless as saying that a cleaver "deserves cutleriness". That said, if my knowledge of someone consists only of "it is a human", I cannot conclude much of anything! ("He invented mongrel2" or "he is carrying a knife in his hand and is standing ten feet in front of me", are examples of knowledge-base items which do yield nontrivial conclusions in isolation.) > I feel bad for people like you who lack empathy to such a degree. Just literally disconnected from such a large portion of humanity. What in the nonextant Nine Hells is there to profit from "connecting" with the whole world's troubles? I feel bad for people who submit to their empathy and thereby let other people drag them down.

nickthemagicman 8y ago

It seems to me that republicans are perfectly fine with others suffering, and misery as long as it doesn't affect them. Disguised Social Darwinism. The problem is most are unaware that their success is 99% luck of being born in certain circumstances.

vailprogrammer 8y ago
"Honey, those people are lazy, so they deserve to be poor!" Dear lord. Go work in some shitty jobs full of poor people, and count how many work hard versus how many are lazy. Those 1%ers would be shocked at what they saw. But of course, how could they ever see the help as humans deserving of a decent, not-always-financially-scared life?
- mmirate3 8y ago
  People don't "deserve" things. They earn them. Go pile-drive that idea through your thick skull. (Doing so, just might fix whatever major malfunction you are so clearly suffering.)

mmirate3 8y ago

> Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? No. Luckily programming isn't the only task in the world that needs doing, and we have a lovely thing called "comparative advantage" that helps solve all the information problems that result from such grand diversity of relative-capabilities. I suggest you look it up. We even have people who are even smarter than programmers, or are at least smarter in different ways than programmers. Managers and scientists, for instance. > Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? It is either their own that they continue to be ignorant, or their parents' that they and their parents are stupid yet still they were conceived and born. > Do they deserve no sympathy? None whatsoever. They're - at best - just random people. Why should they? > or humanity? How can someone "deserve" humanity? It is an intrinsic physical attribute of a particular object - "X is a human being instead of e.g. a toaster-oven" - and since this is the real world, I do dare to presume that the only extant people who have jobs are indeed humans. In other words: thusfar, saying that a person "deserves humanity" is just as meaningless as saying that a cleaver "deserves cutleriness". That said, if my knowledge of someone consists only of "it is a human", I cannot conclude much of anything! ("He invented mongrel2" or "he is carrying a knife in his hand and is standing ten feet in front of me", are examples of knowledge-base items which do yield nontrivial conclusions in isolation.) > I feel bad for people like you who lack empathy to such a degree. Just literally disconnected from such a large portion of humanity. What in the nonextant Nine Hells is there to profit from "connecting" with the whole world's troubles? I feel bad for people who submit to their empathy and thereby let other people drag them down.